C&C3:The Cronicles of The Forgotten Heroes
by General SG Jist
Summary: We follow the untold stories of several commanders during the time of the 3rd Tiberium war, focusing on the aftermath of the initial Scrin invasion. We learn of new technologies, back stories of existing cannon characters, and speculative cannon cont.
1. Chapter 1

_Explanatory notes: I posted all these a year ago in the Command and Conquer forums. I have made a few editorial changes. There are currently seven installments done. I prefer to call them "Installments" instead of "Chapters" because they're not exactly chapter organized. Hope u enjoy them, and I'll post the others after I do some more proofreading. Until next time. And yes, I know their long.  
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**Installment I**

The Scrin Invasion had been going on worldwide for many months, with relatively low casualty rates, among the Scrin that is. However Foreman 7432 is dismayed to hear of an outpost that seams to have repelled every attack set upon it. His Recon specialist, a buzzer from the 321 planet of the Scrrin system has just given him the report of the lay of the land.

It was known as expanded Red Zone 23. It is a land pitted with boulders and cliffs, Tiberium every few miles, but recently there has been an unprecedented decrease in tiberium field output and toxicity levels. Also there was little activity reported around the area. Foreman 7432 was boggled because the outpost commander must have known they were smack dab next to a big blue flowing roaring liquid, that would spray up in a horrid torrent of mist and waves. He found the sight terrible to look on, but knew these weak humans couldn't drive their "Mammoth tanks" across it. O how he disliked those Mammoth tanks, he had lost an entire strike force, and the base it was guarding, composed of 10 buzzers, 30 disintegrators, 5 Tripods and 10 Storm Riders, 2 drone ships, 4 Gravity stabilizers and Overlord knew what to about 15 of these armored slow moving goliaths, supported by 3, only 3 behemoths with rocket men in them. Foreman 7432 would grind his gnashers every time he recalled that debacle. He would not make the same mistakes here, he swore to himself that he would crush this out post like the time the Overlord's wrath was encored upon a particularly defiant Blue zone, which dare to have the edacity to kill one of his fellow Foreman, O yes he would leave his mark upon Scrinish lore, like his father did when he was here 65 Million years ago to exterminate some oversize lizards.

He gave a vicious war cry that was heard all the way in red zone 1. He began to form up his troops. Meanwhile in the outpost, that was actually a base, commander Stark was eyeing the rising Storm clouds that seemed to be gathering directly above him. He hoped it wasn't one of those Mythical Ion storms that had seemingly disappeared, ever since the end of the 2nd Tiberium war. He was also glad that it wasn't an artificial Ion storm secreted by the city sized Scrin carrier ships. Rain pelted his Tiberium field suit, and ran in rivulets down his pants. O how he missed the days of the Cabal insurrection, Cabal was an enemy he could understand, a machine that had simply run out of control, he was privileged to be one of the corporals at the time to fight and protect Trotoss & Dr. Boudreau. Now he was an old hardened veteran which found it hard to comprehend the strange alien Scrin. He wanted to just Nuke the encroaching Scrin forces and get on with his duties, but most of the nukes were stolen by Nod, and the few left were locked up underneath the pentagon for a last stand offensive. He couldn't understand why his platoon was denied an Ion Cannon up link. Maybe it was because his base of Command was in a Red Zone. Priority seemed to go to the Blue zones, then a few critical hand picked yellow zones. If any Red zone commander was lucky they would receive an EMP control center. Unfortunately his base was not one of those lucky few. "Dam Politics" he cursed.

Stark and his men were aware of the immanent Scrin assault on their base. It was just a matter of how long they would have to wait. Every passing day frayed his commander's nerves, knowing he was going to die, and not able to prevent it just ate at him, day after agonizing day. At the start of the this campaign his troops were high in morale, they had the latest in Zocom technology, Zone shatterers, Zone orcas, ample numbers of field suits, Sonic & EMP grenades, 50 Mammoth tanks, and enough c4 to get into fort knocks, and probably enough to make an underground railroad to China . But after time and time again of throwing the invaders back he knew it was just a matter of time before the Scrin crushed his last stand, and discovered the covert research facility nested within the Niagara Falls.

With in a few hours his hand picked Sniper team scouts reported a massive Scrin troop movement composed of Disintegrators, corrupters, Tripods, unidentifiable huge capitol ships, and some that they didn't even recognize. Stark knew it had struck fear into his scouts, "they should arrive in 3 days march" he said, Stark knew a 3 day march for a human army would be a one day march for a Scrin force, he told the scout to inform is lieutenants, and said: "Don't worry, we will deal with them like we dealt with all the others who came before them, they shall have the same fate. Tell the troops to Lock and Load." This seemed to reassure the sniper and he left. Alone once more Stark stared at the horizon, squinting his eyes to see if he could catch a glimpse of the horde, knowing his attempt was futile, he looked again at the gathering clouds and wondered if his time had finally come. It has been a 2week hiatus since the last attacks, so is this the big one? He thought and continued to ponder. He held the fate of the soldiers in his hands and would not squander them in a half ***ed attempt.

Stark gathered all his troops in the courtyard in front of the base a few minutes after the report. "I'm not going to lie to u guys, this one will be one hell of a sour candy, you'll want to give up and surrender, but all of us know Scrin never take prisoners, they kill indiscriminately, they will raze our structures, and find the secret we have safeguarded for General Granger. I received this assignment with the highest honors, you men are the best of what can be afforded to train you, and with boyle with the purse strings, and the support of rich desperate house wives, we have turned out quite a good defending force. We have done this for almost 14 months, fending of dozens of attack by Scrin and Nod alike, are we going to let this force walk all over us? Or are we going to fight? We'll pound them into the ground like all the others. Lets make a lasting impression!" And they cheered; they set about their duties with a renewed zeal and confidence; which hadn't been seen since the 1st attacks. He was almost able to convince himself, but not quite.

2 days later the sun rose on a damp soggy morning, Foreman 7432was seething, he was going to burst, nothing was going right, he had planned to attack the settlement 26 hours ago but things just kept breaking. Half the shield generators would not work and hundreds of the plasma disks were reverting to their original gas, solid and liquid states, due to improper storage and handling. He skinned the shock troopers responsible and fed them to his Tiberium fiends and his prized Proton Energy pucker fish. Among these set backs were an unexplained refinery reactor melt down witch destroyed his entire supply of powdered Icore. Buy the time his underlings managed to fix everything it had cost his army 26 hours in marching time. He arrived in sight of the waterside base in a terrible rage. He sent his 1st wave out.

During all this time Stark and his men were euphoric, they prepared and went over the up coming battle predictions again and again, the entire base was filled with bravado and good cheer. Then the 1st wave struck. They heard it from the stationed sentries and the automated watchtowers, guardian cannons, sonic emitters, and AA batteries. The troops poured out of their bunkers with rifles, and rockets in their hands. Each taking the time to put on their fields suits and ammo packs. They ran toward the on coming horde with no fear, just determination.

Stark stood in the center of the front line, firing his rapid fire machine gun, and planting C4 where it was needed. He signaled the Zorcas and Fire hawks, the battle field lit up like Christmas. Scrin infantry fell left and right. A group of buzzers and shock troopers managed to break through the perimeter of the base defenses and reached Stark. He aimed and fired, right in the middle of them, and they scattered, seconds later cut down by a volley of sniper fire. Scrin screeched and growled all around them, most of them cut short, dieing for a war they never wanted, but had no choice to disobey.

Wave after wave of Scrin infantry and vehicles bashed the defenders, slowly chipping away at their armor, their hope, and morale. The battle went on for most of the day. Continuing waves of green and blue creatures and their terrible weaponry advanced, cutting down scores of GDI troops. The Sonics still cut a swath of destruction through the ground foes, but the enemy was getting smarter, lining up perpendicular to the Sonic waves thus they minimized casualties. The sound of Tungsten shells firing sporadically peppered the battle, Storm riders went down in droves, but unfortunately most of the predator tanks, and APCs were destroyed. The shattererss remained in a flanking position on each side of the troops. None of them could afford the time to use their overload beams, so they just fired normal sonics. Pitbulls roamed around the battlefield erratically shooting anything and everything, with their missiles and mortars. But many of them were destroyed by the rare tripod, and devour + corrupter combo. This proved too much for most of the pit bulls and they retreated in a flurry, 3/4 of them where destroyed or damaged. the seemed to be no more Scrin infantry and only vehicles advancing, along with the rare tripods. Sonic and EMP grenades spat out toward the horde, killing and slowing them down, but the Scrin still advanced.

Suddenly the ground shook and out from the hangers marched a long line of Mammoth tanks, taking care of most of the vehicles, they exploded in a spark of flame and smoke, those who got too close were pounded into the ground by the mighty treads of the Mammoths. Foreman 7432 muttered a curse under his breath as he saw the line of mammoths approaching his front lines, he cursed vehemently and stared in mounting horror as the mammoths crushed his lines and lines of tanks, some of them fled and were able to return for repairs, but most of them just fired and died. He was furiously frustrated; if the shields had been fixed on the tripods he could sweep the floor with those moving piles of scrap metal. Then he noticed something he had over looked through out all this time, the Mammoths were firing cannon shells, not the destructive "rail Guns" he had always feared, but common normal cannon fodder, he instantly did a recalculation and realized his force of shielded & non Shielded tripods just might be able to take care of this pesky problem. He sent them Forth.

Stark was actually thinking he might live to see another battle, he saw the Scrin forces flee and tremble under the treads of the mammoth tanks, he had never understood why they didn't have Rail guns, he thought it was unfair, but he had grown to live with it. And most of the time it made no difference, the enemy could either handle the non rail gun mammoths or not, it was a simple as that, black or white. But as soon as he saw the army of tripods come into view, his concerns and fears all resurfaced. Curses High Command and their red tape balance regulations. He had fought tripods before and never in such big numbers, he and a few of his daring commando buddies would just run out there under covering fire and C4 their assess, but with buzzers attached it was suicide, he had only C4ed a buzzered tripod once, and it ad nearly got him, he woke up in the base armory with dozens of cuts all over him, lucky none of them cut any veins, or he would have died then and there.

A cry over the radio jerked him into the present battle, the tripods were advancing and the Mammoths were retreating, putting on reverse rotors, and trying to get the hell out of there. Every vehicle driver was told of the ways of EMP, the tripod is the only heavy vehicle with EMPing ability. Stark wondered why about half the tripods had no shields, the tripods had come out moments before and half of them had no shields? it made little sense to Stark. He sent a squadron of hammerheads with zone raiders to deal with them. It did quite nicely until the Capitol ships arrived. Sonic grenades flew out windows, rockets followed.

Planetary Assault Carriers and Warships pounded the retreating mammoths and the on coming hammerheads. Some of the hammerheads went down with out even firing a shot. Slingshots ran around like kindergarteners on sugar, attempting to take down the capitol ships. More Scin vehicles approached over the horizon. Times like this Stark wished he had juggernauts, but regulations were regulations. The lack of available artillery was probably due to the balancing of GDI resources. Understandable, but sure as hell was debilitating.

Stark was getting desperate and called the local support power center; he called in a few air strikes, which left stars sparkling in his eyes. And used the EMP on the on coming ships and Tripods, half of the tripods, those with out shields went out like a candle, but the Ships continued to advance, Stark had called for reinforcements from GDI high command, which was now in Washington DC, but no one answered his memo. He stood there with the few men he had left and fired at the oncoming tripods, then he ordered a charge, once the Scrin were in range of all the base defenses, they charged, stark in the lead, getting his C4 ready, and all the remaining troops behind him, riffles blazing, a total of 30 troops remained, along with 10 mammoths to fight the last stand of Commander Edward Gregory Stark. As the lasers pinged and bounced around the battle field, Stark had one last glimpse of the sky, and it was storming like he had never seen it in all of his 58 years, lightning crackled and thunder rolled, And Stark went to his death not afraid, because he knew he had done his best.

Hours later after the clean up crew had cleaned up the battlefield and ransackedthe base, Foreman 7432 was still angry; the clouds above didn't do him justice. He had lost 2/3 of his remaining attack force and for what? Nothing, a pile of metal, and a mysterious blue liquid that sloshed around him and chilled his feet, making them numb, when he stepped in it. He had lost over 10,000 thousand credits invested in his army which was now 2/3 destroyed, he wanted to eat something, maybe a human, maybe an indigenous animal, something he could sink his teeth in and smell the aroma of. He knew this was just how he got when he didn't get to sniff his Icore powder, but it was gone, he knew the Supervisor would not be pleased when he heard of Forman 7432's lack of discovering new Intel, he raged and speared a fish that happened to jump out of the water, with is claws. He was despondent, until one of his personal guard found something behind the waterfall, while the guard was taking a Scrinish leak.

During all his time on Earth, Foreman 7432 smiled for the first time.


	2. Chapter 2

_Explanatory note: As I said before __I posted these a year ago in The Command and Conquer EA forms. I have made several editorial changes. Not sure if citing links to things work in this format, but if it does everything should work out fine, if not, the there will be a few missing enhancements of the story installments. A few of the upcoming Installments have links, so I hope they work in this format._

_I haven't seen any others link things, but I just found out about this site 2 days ago._

_I have already finished 7 chapters, and am reediting to make them better. Thus there won't be that long of a wait between chapters. As u can tell this one is shorter than the 1st, in fact it's my shortest installment.  
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_Enjoy_

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_**Installment II**  
It was one of those days which seemed like something was going to happen, there was a sense of charged tension in the air. And yet there was nothing. A Steal Talons GDI base sat on top of a large sand dune in the Kalahari Desert. Sonic Emitters stood idle, the base only had 3 of them due to the fact that GDI high command had denied them the construction of such base defenses, Boyle claimed their rail gun accelerators made up for the lack of fire power, thus those 3 emitters were on loan from a neighboring Blue zone, which was over stocked in weaponry.

Titans & Wolverines stood at the ready, along with a few riflemen, It had also been decreed that the base had no armory, thus they had few troops, most of the personnel were tank drivers, and orca pilots. Armor piercing bullets were being passed around when it happened.

A tare in space and time appeared mere miles from the entrance of the base. The few pit bulls that were ready circled the sphere powering up their missiles and mortars. The base commander knew what was coming; he had feared it ever since the world wide news (GNN) reported the presence of strange alien forces on earth. He called upon his veteran grenadiers and veteran rocket men to set up a 2nd perimeter around the ovoid hole. Then he gathered his rail gun titans to flank them. He held the mammoths and aircrafts in reserve with the slingshots. He ordered the behemoths to take up strategic positions behind the base defenses and added rocket men to accompany them.

Then with no warning, an army of darkly scaled bugs appeared, not from the hole, but from the horizon, flying above them were dozens of storm riders. The carefully set up perimeter around the wormhole wavered for a second, and broke, and rushed to attack the in coming horde. Several minutes after their backs were turned the hole spawned an army of tripods and assimilators. The GDI forces were taken buy surprise.

Scores of vehicles exploded in a burst of blue and green beams emanated by the tripods, they slunk through the hole when the GDI troops were preoccupied. The tripods swarmed, stomping and crushing all resistance, all while firing their Tiberium infused lasers. The GDI forces scattered and tried to return to base, but by then it was too late. The tripods had created an impenetrable wall between the GDI strike force and their base; the GDI force were caught between two hells; death in front, and death behind, they could die fighting or die running, as one they all chose to fight.

The battle raged. Titans shot over silos with their powerful rail guns, taking down seekers and devour tanks. Wolverines spat AP ammo at the masses of infantry, cutting them down scores at a time. Mortars flew every which way, doing damage to friend and foe alike. MRTs with infantry in them roamed around the battlefield, fixing whatever needed fixing. Unfortunately their low speed and armor, as well as their slow repairing process made them easy targets; thus many of the were targeted. The infantry inside sometimes found it hard to target, resulting in times were the infantry didn't fire out. Tungsten upgraded sling shots also joined the party, taking down storm riders.

As he observed the battle, the commander wondered at the similarities between the Scrin designed storm rider and the Nod designed Banshee bomber. Fortunately those bombers were decommissioned, although he was not a veteran of the 2nd Tiberium war, like most of his men, he had heard of the destructive power of those futuristic bombers. Hell, 3 of them could take down a Mammoth MKII. Ahh that was another decommissioned powerhouse. In his history of GDI classes he had learned, and seen the destructive power of those behemoths. The true reason of their decommissioning was unknown, but some speculated Boyle, as the Treasurer didn't like how much that powerhouse cost. And as the Deputy director his stance was no different. With such a powerful unit guarding his base he would have peace of mind. Such was not the case, not the case at all.

Aboard his personal hammerhead the commander wept for all the men he had sent to their deaths. He had no idea it would be so bad; limbs and entrails of what once had been the new trainees splattered the yellow sands, heaps of melted gold plated tanks sitting among the hot yellow sands, now tainted with blood and motor oil. He saw the mammoths he had ordered to stay back charge into the fray, not caring if they would be shredded into scrap metal, knowing they must help their trapped comrades. The group of hammerheads, orcas and fire hawks surrounded his flag hammerhead, and gave covering fire as he zoomed away from the battlefield. He gave the order to contact the local Ion cannon uplink center. He hoped it would be enough to eliminate the horde, once it was in range of the base. Grenades, artillery shells, orca missiles, fire hawk bombs and rockets alighted on the Scrin and exploded, they tore their tough hides and exploded their hand held alien weapons. Viscous green liquids flowed from the wounded Scrin, and were terrible to look on. The liquid seemed to be some Tiberium compound, which evaporated and seemed to toxify the air.

As he watched, the tripods reached the base, destroyed the base defenses and EMPed his construction yard. The few troops and vehicles that were still functional continued to fire on the Scrin swarm. The behemoths fired as fast as they could, stomping any near by enemies. Artillery shells burst on the Scrin troops, killing them without mercy. The shells also tripped up some of the tripods, by taking out one or two of their legs, several of them fell and rolled around like beer bottles. All these were attempts to slowed the advance of the Scrin, but it didn't.

On his perch in the bay of his hammer head the commander saw many assimilators heading for tech structures. They dodged the fire expertly; gliding around the few remaining artillery shells and rockets, like they were playing dodge ball on thin ice.

He knew these aliens could not be permitted to learn the technologies of the Steal Talons. He gave the order to the Ion cannon. 8 ice blue beams lanced down from the heavens. A few lagging hammerheads were caught in the blast, and fell to the ground like meteor rocks.

As he and his remaining air force sped away from the destruction, the commander knew that Director Boyle would not be pleased with him, not pleased at all.


	3. Chapter 3

_Explanatory note: I have made no content changes to this one, but have edited for spelling & gamer._

_Hope u guys enjoy, please review. If enough people ask for it I can reedit my current order, by putting a new installment before all my existing ones._

_Thanks._

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_**Installment III:**

Foreman 7432 relished his 4 victories. 1st of the Red Zone rampage on a well defended human base, which yielded a technology research facility nestled within the water falls. He liked to count his 2nd victory as slaying the group of cowering humans and a brown cow in the facility. It gave him a delicious pleasure. He had rent the weak skins of the humans with his custom made disintegration laser, which did not cauterize the wounds it inflicted, but encouraged the flow of the blood of the humans, so that they would die a painful and agonizing death. He licked his lips with his three tri-forked tongues, when he recalled that amusing altercation, he had forced the chief scientist to explain the technology while he watched Foreman 7432 splice his team members into dead chunks of meat.

Foreman's clean up team had also managed to revive several troops from the recent battle, among them the proud base commander who called him self Stark. It was tradition not to take prisoners, but Foreman 7432 wanted to learn more about the human species and to find out how they worked. He kept stark and his fellow detainees in a medical prison where assimilators and buzzers studied them. A few of them had refused to cooperate and had excessive amounts of Tiberium pumped through their systems, which made them ill, 2 of the 3 trouble makers had died, and were being studied by a separate team of Assimilators.

Foreman 7432 was also delighted in what he called his 4th victory; the sudden and complete destruction of another GDI base on the other side of the planet; more specifically, on a land mass known to the humans as Africa. His invasion force had their orders and should have reported back by now, but there was no communication report given. His troops had reported 8 blue lasers from the sky, a big blue white light, then and the field report up link stopped, as if cut off. Foreman didn't understand this and had sent several Shock troops and storm Riders to see what had happened, but no report thus far. He hoped the on site team of assimilators had carried out their instructions before it was too late. He had sent them through the wormhole mere hours ago. With out knowing the fate of his tripods he was again uneasy. He should have gotten a report via the on site mastermind which was on loan from his fellow Foreman on that continent. All the infantry were his in that last assault. Foreman 7432 was meant to execute the final blow while the local foreman was to distract the base defenders to give his force enough time to accomplish the mission.

Sensing his uneasiness the Tiberium fiends at his feet glared warily around the chamber with their baleful gaze. Meanwhile, 30 meters away Stark watched his lieutenant being skinned alive. The site made him sick and he through up in the corner, The Shock trooper on duty shifted his plasma rifle uneasily. A few hours earlier before he was on duty the shock trooper had inhaled a large amount of Icore powder he and his gang had stolen from the Foreman's private stash. He and his buddies had triggered the reactor melt down, and in the confusion, they managed to make off with 2/3 of the Icore powder. He had cunningly tricked his fellow shock troopers to get the other 1/3 of the Icore, which was stored in a lower level of the structure. He collapsed the hover lift, which led to the lower levels of the building, conveniently taking care of 2 issues. The 1st being the # witnesses to the crime they were committing, and the second being shares of the loot. Now he had 2/3 of the powder. Then he lit the charges. As the trooper sped away in his fast moving seeker tank, he observed the ploom of unprocessed & unripe tiberium exploding in a green and blue display of lights and melting metal. He felt no sympathy for his abandoned comrades.

He celebrated by snorting a 3rd of his winnings right then and there, thus he was more then a little light headed on his rounds and particularly on his guard post of the human prisoners. Out of the corner of one of his 7 eyes the guard saw a flurry of movement which made him dizzy and added to the pounding of his head, which should not have been because powdered Icore had no adverse effects for physical pain, this boggled the shock trooper. Then he realized he was falling, and his rifle was yanked out of his claws, then everything went black.

Stark had knocked the shock trooper to the ground and aimed the plasma rifle at the assimilators and buzzers in the room, some froze some ran, but all died. Next Stark aimed the rifle at his lieutenant on the dissection platform. Momentarily mesmerized by the shifting lights and shapes Stark stood marveling at the beauty of it. Then he remembered his duty and muttering a prayer over his dying lieutenant he put him out of his misery. "Valar More-gulis= All men must die." The remaining 4 soldiers stayed where they where, not believing they were free of the tortuous aliens. Stark told them to get up and follow him, they did. Outside stood a pair of disintegrators, momentarily surprised to see the humans the bugs just stood there for a second, that second was enough for Stark to shoot them both and take there cutting beams. He handed them to the 2 soldiers who seemed the most competent, and told them to be stealthy. They look for a vehicle they could Jack to get out of there. They scanned the near by landscape, observing Scrin workers going about their normal business. One of his troops spotted a near by unmanned seeker, they slunk towards it.

Foreman 7432 was waiting in the drone ship for his report, which never came, he couldn't understand what was going on. He had sent that team hours ago, they should have reestablished contact with the north African base by now, he gnawed his teeth, and swirled one of his tongues in a chilled plasma cream which was another of his favorite snacks. He tasted the purple bubbling swirling mass and relaxed somewhat. Then unexpectedly his transmission screen lit up, it showed his buzzer recon specialist who looked quite agitated. "What is it?" said Foreman 7432, "I'm expecting a report from my field ops team in Africa" "I hate to bother you your Foremanship, but we have a situation, there seems to be a large unidentifiable force moving our way!!!" the buzzer gsasped out. "Also a rather large outpost just popped up on our Scrindar ser! We don't know how they got here so fast, the force tends to systematically appear and disappear, each time, their moving a little closer to us, and away from their outpost. Their almost upon us!" The buzzer screeched.

Foreman 7432 groaned, he didn't have enough troops to pull off an entire offensive, or defensive of the water fall. He cursed, he hated calling for help, but it seems like he had to. He was about to contact the Supervisor, when the transmission screen lit up once more, his security officer, a shock trooper that he had personally trained also looked a little unsettled. 4 simple words drove the foreman to a frustrated rage he could not control, he stormed out of the command nucleus of the Drone ship, smashing his plasma snack on the door as he left, splattering it all over the ornate command seat, he kicked one of his Tiberium fiends when it had gotten in his way. "The humans are escaping!" In all his haste Foreman 7432 had forgot to call for reinforcements.

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It had been nearly 10 minutes since Stark and his men hopped into the Seeker, it took them 3 minutes to figure out the alien controls, then they were on their way. Stark had never comprehended the vastness of an alien base until now, he sat there in awe as he saw incomprehensible alien things, they zoomed towards the perimeter of the base. Just then the transmission panel of the seeker tank lit up showing a grotesque mosquito like face, it said, "This is Foreman 7432, all Scrin in the base should be alerted of the missing humans, they are to be found and detained, no lethal force, they are to be incapacitated if possible if not then maim them, base lock down, no one leaves the base perimeter. Also, all perimeter scouts be on the alert for a large unidentified force moving our way. Protect the hive!" Chills ran down Stark's back and his fellow troops were also sweating. They zoomed forward; hoping a single seeker wouldn't be noticed in the mayhem. Above them several capitol ships prepared for battle.

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Confessor Curtis Conrad was the leading officer in his hand picked band of 200 Black Hand Troops. He was given the honor of leading the 1st wave into battle. He and his men had teamed up with another Nod assault force bent on kicking GDI when they were down. They had received the disturbing reports of the alien visitors, but enjoyed taking stiff collared GDI commanders by surprise. Nod had done it's small part in eliminating the Scrin invaders, but the Commander of the Nod forces in Red zone 24 had gotten board fighting off aliens, he wanted to destroy GDI once and for all, and he thought that they wouldn't even realize certain Nod troops had broke the truce between them. Confessor Conrad Curtis didn't agree with the red zone commander, but what could he do, times were tough, and u had to do what a superior officer said, or risk being burned alive. Conrad occasionally had nightmares of him burning, and none of his loyal soldiers would help him, he had trained with his battalion of black hand troops since the days of brother Slavic, O how proud he was to be considered in Slavic's inner circle, then some lame suicide bomber had to go and upset everything. He yearned for those days, when it was simply GDI vs. Nod, but Cabal's betrayal had taught him that GDI was not so bad after all, Nod and GDI could work side by side with the same goals. But now it had all changed again.

As Conrad reached the sight of were the Zocom base was meant to be, he just saw a network of alien shapes and creatures, moving wildly together in a majestic wave, most of the aliens were firing upon another alien craft, which seemed to be trying to evade the concerted attack. The lone vehicle took cover behind trees and boulders, and was heading straight for the stealthed Nod attack force. He ordered his troops to give covering fire for the on coming craft, so he could ascertain what was going on. The Black hands quickly made a semi circle and open fire at the pursuing Scrin.

Stark got quite a shock as an enormous # of troops seamed to materialize meters in front of them, the driver gave a jerk of the steering mechanism which nearly crashed them into a birch tree. Stark saw the troops deploy in a semicircle and start firing, he realized the troops were giving him cover fire, he headed for the center of the semicircle. Buzzers burst behind him, and several devour tanks exploded regardless of their corrupter support. As Stark was reaching the middle of the semi circle the troops in front of him parted and marched behind him, they close the gap; The momentum carried them into the waiting arm of an Avatar.

Conrad watched as the small alien craft collided with a kneeling Avatar, which was getting its legs repaired. It was just a quick hot fix that fixed a minor issue, that was potentially battle performance changing, the saboteurs who knew how to do this were rare, more like those who were willing to do it were rare.

The Commander of the entire army found her way to the front, she was just one of those generically trained commandos. She and Conrad marched in unison to the cockpit of the seeker. Commander stark wobbled out, the alien machine had given him a light case of nossia. Conrad asked him what in the name of Kane's beard was going on? Stark relayed his tale of the fall of his base, and the escape from the Scrin. Both Nod officers stood in stony silence while Stark told his tale. After he was done the 2 Nod officers mulled over his story. Stark broke into their thoughts and said, "From what I've seen of your force and the scrin force we can finish off this Scrin infestation.

The 2 officers left stark and his men alone for a while to talk among them selves. Conrad wanted Stark to be let go and the other commander wanted Stark to be tortured for extensive questioning. The commander told Conrad to return to his troops, and let her deal with this. He reluctantly did as he was told. The female commander by the name of Gene Elza when up to stark and told him if he helped Conrad and her troops destroy the Scrin here and swore to do a small favor for her, in a few days she would let him live. Stark considered this and agreed to the 1st part willingly, but was a little hesitant about the 2nd part.

Conrad an stark Marched side by side a few minutes later and led the Black hand troops into battle. Aboard his fleet captain's capitol ship Foreman 7432 was getting edgy, he had set up all the defenses he could. All he could do was wait; he didn't have to wait long. A torrent of Black hand troops flung them selves at the base defenses, buzzers rushed out of their hives intent on rending flesh and cutting bone, photon cannons sprayed balls of corrosive Tiberium and plasma the on coming horde.

Flames spat from all sides, with in seconds the buzzers were inundated in the white-hot flame, the hives went next, then the photon cannons, then the power plants. From the Carrier ship it looked as if the entire ground was a blaze, bullets riddled his shock troopers, missiles chipped away at the shields. Foreman 7432 was outraged, his entire base was going up in smoke, and he didn't have the troops to hold it. He saw large walking laser turrets shoot his few remaining vehicles. He was glad to see his few remaining tripods holding their own. But that looked to be the only good news. He cursed and wondered where his reinforcements were. Several venoms tried to take down one of his other Assault carriers, he quickly put a stop to their charged red-hot beams, he sent the fierce component fighter ships at them. The venoms fell, some pieces of metal fell on the soldiers fighting below, one wing pinned a rocket trooper, which stayed still too long, trying to get a lock on one of the pesky storm riders, who were zipping around, doing terrible damage.

When his Drone ship fell out of the sky, Foreman 7432 knew he had failed. He ordered a full retreat of the entire carriers still left in the area. He had lost 2 of his original fleet of 10, Foreman 7432 knew the Intel he had gained would not be enough to justify this debacle. All the capitol ships turned and headed for the storming horizon, he just hoped the forces he left behind would be enough, enough to prevent anyone from following him.

Stark wiped his forehead, it was drenched with sweat and blood, he had taken a bad splash burn when a Black Hand trooper saved his life by killing a buzzer to close for comfort. He spent 2 days in the infirmary, Conrad was there to congratulate him. After Conrad left the Russian commando came in, and said "So, u are still alive." "Yes, and now what was the favor u asked of me?" said Stark, "for another time, you have to meat Kane, he will want to talk to you" "You said I could leave, after I killed the Scrin, what's this business about seeing Kane?" "Well…., I lied" She came closer and she had a wicked gleam in her eyes. In That Moment Stark realized that he would never make it back to GDI high command, while she was alive…


	4. Chapter 4

_Explanatory note: It's been a few weeks since I updated, and I've been busy. Hope you enjoy, and please review. _

* * *

**Installment IV **

Foreman 7432 sulked on the bridge of the planetary assault carrier; he watched awe struck as the battle raged below him. He saw giant humanoid machines marching over his base, blasting his troops with laser beams and incinerating many of his remaining forces in pillars of red magma. The torrent of flames was blinding, he shaded his many seeing orbs with his fleshy pallid arm. In the front of the army stood a regiment of darkly clad troops, some with machine guns, some with flame weapons, and even some with rocket launchers. Foreman 7432 was galled by the audacity of these humans, burning his base, and even firing on his ships. He was about to signal the elimination of the pesky rocket troops when a band of venoms flew in, shooting their lasers at the aft of the carriers. Foreman 7432 smashed his claw on the viewing plasma shield, and it rippled with irritation. The component flyers detached and swiftly dealt with the annoying venoms.

Just then the deck listed and then slowly righted it self, alarms went off, signaling a direct hit to one of the ship's critical systems. Similar incidents were reported on the 4 near by ships, their engines were damaged. 4 of the ships 6 engines were damaged beyond quick fix drone repairs. The attack came from the middle of the massing horde. Foreman 7432 knew the new Tiberium core missiles, he had heard of them over the emergency bands, those weapons were the only things that could have done such damage in so short a time. Most of the Scrin command bands had reported the destructiveness of these missiles; it was unbelievable. He had to give these humans some credit, they were starting to harness the true power of Tiberium, but he was also disturbed. Foreman 7432 wondered how many types of technologies had the humans unlocked. Given this rate, they would soon uncover and come to master the secrets of teleportation, cloning, light speed travel, hydrogen powering capabilities, fusion and much more. He had to make his report ASAP. He had learned quite allot from his human prisoners, but not enough.

Foreman 7432 ordered his ships to form up around him and retreat, to accommodate for the ships with damaged engines they crawled along at a painfully slow speed, in fact if their speed was recorded by humans it would have broken the world record of slowest retreat ever, but they had enough fire power to make pursuers think twice before attempting a pursuit.

* * *

Back at GDI high command, Deputy Director boyle sat in his plush swade arm chair, behind his sturdy birch plastered desk, drumming his fingers on the table top. He locked his steely gaze with the visitor, giving him a small disapproving look as he gave his report, then the visitor unexpectedly commented on his desk in a desperate and innocent way. The man seamed like he was just trying to calm himself by feeling something real.

Back when Boyle was just a junior secretary to the Treasurer, that desk had been nicknamed "Boyle's beach support"(cough, cough) it was rumored that Boyle had banged his boss one lonely late night on the desk, but none of it could be traced back to Boyle, it was just office romance rumors, but apparently not a rumor because the treasurer was fired soon after, it was said that she had been embezzling funds, but the old rumors still lingered. Boyle must have worked some money magic, because after she left he was promoted to senior secretary, and 6 years later he had become the top candidate for the treasury position. The scandal was neatly berried, but rumors were still occasionally circulated, being quickly squashed by Boyle himself.

Sitting nervously across from Boyle in a hard metal foldable chair was Commander Randle T. Radcliff. Boyle liked making others stand, but it was impractical in long meetings, and the man seemed ready to collapse any way. An agitated Randle sat in his prim, but disheveled uniform, accounting his failure in the Kalahari; he had lost his entire base, and most of his men. They had been ionized into dust particles along with most of the attacking Scrin force.

Boyle had no idea how this excuse of a man had worked himself up into the post of a commander, but he didn't like it. Millions of hard funded dollars, wasted on this inept commander, he seethed. Why couldn't all the commanders be as competent as Granger's pet commander. That commander had successfully rallied most of the others, and had single handedly retaken the White House, the Pentagon, Andrew's Air force base and numerous others, he was the single, and best hope of GDI victory world wide, he had seen much potential in him, and hoped to replace Granger with that public hero. Unfortunately it seemed that Radcliff wasn't even a third the man he was. "Officer Radcliff, have u informed General Granger of this development, because if u haven't I see no reason to tell him, he is busy priming our hero, and does not need to be bogged down with your failure. You see, GDI is like a body, every organ and limb must do it's best to fend off attack, you are like a finger, who has failed his duty to flick off a bug, and now that bug has stung us, naturally I am the brain, temporarily of course. I will give u a chance to redeem your self. I will give u command of another base in an undisclosed location, Nod is known to be in the neighboring zone, lets make sure they don't interfere with our operations in that sector, am I making my self clear?" "Yes Director" "O and this time, it would not be wise to leave before your mission is complete, also you will not be given access to an Ion cannon uplink, you see, there is none in the area, the location is to unstable to afford one."

Commander Randle Radcliff composed himself, folded up the chair and left, he knew he had disgraced himself and the GDI banner he served, he walked past the dozens of annalists and went to greet his new troops, they would be taking his air contingent to the new assignment. Randle had never been an army man, he had wanted to teach, but after his 18th birthday he was drafted, he had played football in high school, but never really liked it. He always liked spending time in the library, and reading up on the 3 world wars, prior to the rise of Nod. His good build and perfect eye sight had put him in as a sniper in the early days, he had advanced fast, and gained a lieutenant status, then he realized he could become a commander, and teach his soldiers about life, so he took it knowing it was probably as good as it would get. He still enjoyed a good critical thinking exercise, but when ever a gun was in his hand he just felt weird, he was a poor shot, but he could manage point blank, everyone could. He was good with a sniper rifle, but not with a machine gun.

He had done his part in the Cabal insurrection, but still thought he could make more of a difference doing something else, he had thought it was teaching, but the GDI bureaucracy seemed to have a different purpose for him.

Radcliff clamored aboard the hammerhead, not knowing he would soon find his life's purpose. Forman 7432 and the remaining Scrin ships limped along, he cursed the speed of the ships, glancing at the scrindar, he hoped no one had followed his ships, his objectives had been diversionary, but now he had to report to the Supervisor, The Supervisor had taken responsibility of overseeing the construction of the Towers. Forman 7432 sat n the Carrier's Captain's chair gazing at a face on the forward display screen. The Supervisor had patched him through to a recording of some hairless human in black robes, he had hair around his mouth, but none on his head, there was an annoyingly painful Red light bathing him. It had become clear that this human wanted to set some sort of non-aggression pact with them. After the clip was done the Supervisor reappeared, and demanded investigation on this character, "This Kane claims he has an artifact of ours, he has learned much from it, he has predicted our coming, find him and this artifact, and question him" "yes my Lord, but I need a bigger force if I am to continue these objectives." "I shall give u an elite task force to find this Kane, he seems knowledgeable, and must be captured alive, strangely enough, his genetic information was not on file in any of the earth data bases" "Understood" "I will direct you and your new force to where this message originated. I expect you to initiate a full investigation of the area and the humans there, use as much force as you deem nessisary." When Forman 7432 arrived at his destination, he could not have been more blind-sided.

* * *

When the hammerhead landed Randle Radcliff gasped, freezing air rushed into his lungs, causing him to cough for a few seconds. Then he saw 2 things he had never seen before, a huge white bear, and the Aurora Borealis, he had heard about this phenomenon but had never experienced them 1st hand. They had landed on an airfield in a small base, his mission was to secure and investigate a new Tiberium crystal, which was red. Destroying the neighboring Nod base, 200 miles away would just make his job easier. He and his troopers formed up. Sonics were not permitted because it would corrode the ice and melt it, and given enough of that, the ocean would rise and wash the away the entire operation. The primary force protecting the base was the masses of infantry troops, there were still many pit bulls, titans, Wolverines, MRTs, mammoths and Behemoths filled the base hangers as well. Although Slingshots were ideal for the smooth ice ground but they were not needed much, due to the fact that the Northern lights seemed to interfere with most aircraft navigation systems. Thus there were only a few of them. Guardian Cannons stood vigilant every 20 feet, a 4th of them had AA stations 5 feet away.

Several hours after he arrived Radcliff ordered the storm of the Nod base, half of all the base defenders marched off, 60 riflemen, 30 rocket men 40 grenadiers 15 combat engineers, 10 behemoths, 100 pit bulls, and much more, they arrived in sight of the sprawling Nod complex, a statue of Kane stood like a warden, braving the snow and the cold, Obelisks flanked the statue, and made a semicircle, 10 Hands of Nod stood 10 feet behind the wall of obelisks and several darkly clad soldiers moved on their patrols. The GDI force attacked with out warning. Behemoths opened the attack by taking out the semicircle of Obelisks, pit bulls drove recklessly forward firing haphazardly. Just then 2 things happened simultaneously, Black Hand troops sprayed out of their Hands of Nod in lightning quick efficiency, taking out several pit bulls. And a Scrin armada arrived with hundreds of shock troopers and buzzers. It was pandemonium for a few minutes as the firefight between the 3 combatants became a tangled mess. Radcliff stood there as he watched his planned attack become a riot, flames, bullets, missiles plasma disks rockets, and missiles flew everywhere. It seems his organized assault had become a crazy 3 way.

Forman 7432 was bewildered, it had seemed he had interrupted an assault on the Nod base he was to assault, he didn't know of he should help assault the Nod base, or fight off the intruders. If he helped the GDI intruders then they would overwhelm the Nod, no question about it, but in the firefight he might loos the critical Nod personnel he was to question. But on the other hand if he helped defend the Nod base he might not have enough Scrin to hold the Nod base, and interrogate the Nod personnel. As he stood on the bridge pondering this conundrum the battle raged. The Scrin squarely in the no mans land between the 2 forces. Shredder turrets popped up and started giving his infantry quite a thrashing, all this time the forces were firing on whatever enemy happened to stray into the range of fire. Being decimated from both fronts, Forman made a snap discussion and transmitted to the Nod base. Several minutes later the Black hand marched past the Scrin, which were trying to hold their ground against the GDI, the shredders stopped their shredding of the near by Scrin and adjusted their range to fire upon the GDI arsenal.

After about 5 minutes of crazy pandemonium the Black Hand had stopped their attack on the Scrin and just focused on the GDI, accompanied by the Scrin. Shock troopers, confessors, rocket men, disintegrators, buzzers, seekers, flame tanks, Scorpion tanks all stormed the GDI front lines. The mammoths, titans, wolverines, riflemen, rocket men and grenadiers, held the line for a while, but they all knew it was just a matter of time. EMP granades flew right and left, temporarily disabling the mass of enemies, railguns fired every 5 seconds, lasers cut down several riflemen, buzzers burst sending many buzzer blades flying into men, and bouncing off tank armor. Radcliff looked up and saw the massive ships looming over the battle field, casting their own unholy light upon the ground, it bathed the battle in rainbow colors, higher in the sky rainbow colors splashed the horizon, creating a majestic beauty, which Randle T. Radcliff could not forget, with the majesty of it all coursing threw his veins he ordered all the reaming mammoths, pit bulls, slingshots, and rocket men to fire upon the overshadowing Scrin ships, which dared to obscure the beauty of the Aurora Borealis, and right before he gave the order he took a rocket from a near by soldier, and fired with them, he fired upon the foremost ship, through the viewing port of the carrier he could see the slit orb eyes of an alien he had never seen before, he locked gazes with it, and locked his target, and fired.

Aboard the Carrier flag ship Forman 7432 stared with a satisfied smirk on his face as the combined force of Nod and Scrin bashed the front line of intruders, he knew it would just be a matter of time before the concerted force broke through the GDI attackers, and send them back to wherever they came from, he envisioned hunting them down, and licked his lips, but then quickly dismissed it, maybe after he got what he needed from Nod, he hoped this leader Kane was here, but he doubted it, who would want to stay on this cold frigid arctic icecap, the humans called it the north pole, north it was, but he saw no pole, humans made little sense, he thought, at least they have this thing called Coffee, that liquid did wonders for his body, made him feel more energetic, and confident. Then he noticed that an awful # of surface to air projectiles were coming straight for his group of carriers, alarms blared and a few escape spheres were launched, on the ground a dark haired, tanned skinned man had locked eyes with him, he could tell they were the eyes of a sad man, the eyes of a nervous man, the eyes of a desperate man, but as he was lost in the chocolate brown of the man's eyes he only saw determination. The missiles came in at an unavoidable trajectory. Scrin crewmen bustled about, some trying to giggle the ships controls to evade the missiles, some trying to escape the ship, Forman 7432 was very, very, very scared, he knew the shield could not possibly hold. As the ship fell Forman 7432 just wished he had some powdered Icor to calm him down.


	5. Chapter 5

_Explanatory notes:This is relatively short, thus it didn't take too long to redit. The next will probably come later this week. If u haven't realized it yet, I'm kind of satireing the "Game universe" thus this isn't as expansive as the other C&C storis here. By that I mean it's told through a slightly altered lense. Anyways, hope you guys enjoy, the next one is longer. And please leve revies, I haven't seen any. There's only one, and that's not very responsive. _

_Also it would be nice if u cold say what's your favorite installment thus far, thanks.  
_

* * *

_**Installment V **_

The Nod reckoner flanked by an entire BH battalion as well as a Nod attack force reached the rondavue. Confessor Curtis Conrad, leader of the Black Hand battalion, felt uneasy. He had condoned the capture of a Zocom commander, Stark, a man he had grown to respect. Stark sat in the reckoner with a black hand shock trooper and a shadow team , the shadow team trooper kept one gun under stark's chin at all times during the ride. Stark saw in the man's eyes a holly fervor he had seen in most other Nod soldiers he had encountered before. The stealth shroud he was wearing made the shadow blend in with the dark seat cover he was sitting on. On Stark's other side sat a darkly clad flame wielding shock trooper, he too had the gleam of passion in his eyes, but it was not coated with the hatred he saw in the eyes of the shadow. The reckoner zoomed along swiftly and silently in the center of the Nod army.

The convoy and it's army were due to meet Kane in the north were Stark would be transferred and brought in for questioning, Conrad knew that meant interrogation, he also knew interrogation meant torture. He did not relish the transaction, but the Russian commando. Elza, had ordered it and who was he to disobey a direct order? The Russian commando and the bulk of the Nod force were due to arrive at their destination soon. Conrad wished he could help Stark, but orders were orders and even so, there was no chance, if they were seen together too often it would arouse suspicion. They had to make a pit stop to refuel the Reckoners and do some minor maintenance on a few of the vehicles that were damaged in their recent skirmish. They passed the twin Obelisks of light and entered the base, it was located near a dangerous GDI blue zone so they had to be fast, they quickly restealthed and went past the numerous quad sam turrets, the 10 shredder turrets, 30 specters 100 stealth tanks and above them patrolled 300 venoms each upgraded with super charged particle beams. The entire base was stealthed due to the efforts of several stealth generators the managed to recover from the 2nd Tiberium war, thus they were literally invisible. The GDI troops in the neighboring blue zone had no idea, so they thought.

* * *

Stark was daunted by the size of the hidden Nod base, it looked like a major base of operations, and he was told this was just a pit stop, he found it really hard to imagine were he was ultimately headed. Meanwhile in the Arctic circle Foreman 7432 gripped the forward plasma shield, it rippled under his touch and shivered as a result of the increasing barrage. Scrin crewmen ran wily-nily like a bunch of spooked rats, most heading for the exits, some fitfully wrestled with the controls. Knowing they were doomed as soon as their host carrier went down, the component fighter ships fiercely attack any enemy they could get in range of. pitbulls, MRT's, and titans were all damaged ,and some were destroyed. Knowing he could not withstand the impact Foreman 7432 to the controls and flicked on the Ion storm generator, but as he looked up, through the failing shield. He saw the most terrible thing he had ever witnessed in all of his centuries of service in the Scrin military. He had seen the black hole in the center of the universe. He had fought against the Sentinels, a race of biological monstrosities that had encroached on the outlying scrin colonies for millennia, their puss filled larva and their grasping roots sometimes gave him the shivers. He had witnessed the death of a star. Braved the Tempest on a planet of all water, winds up to 750 M/s. he had escaped from Omicron Percei 8, and yet the simple magnificence of what he saw brought him to his knees, we would call it the Aurora Borealis, or the northern lights. Then something strange began to happen...

Forman 7432 wanted to gouge his seeing orbs out, the light was blinding, the colors swirled and melded, he could feel the ship falling at earth gravity 9.8 meters per second. The ship fell like an old man into quick sand, slow motion and everything, (it might have just been lag) and crashed on a trio of tripods, 2 purifiers and about 10 buzzers, the ionized particles conducted lightning and burst into flames, the cathartic Ion storm fanned the flames. By the time anyone had time to explore the wreckage it was just a pile of ash and Scrin metal. Around the fallen ship plasma disks, lasers, rail guns and rifles went off. Flames flew, melting metal, flesh and ice all alike, charring heavier materials. Commander Randle Radcliff had no time to morn his lost, he ordered his men to fire.  
The green particle beams pierced GDI armor and made wolverines into scrap heaps, Titans fired their rail guns, and stomped a few of the scorpion tanks and attack bikes that were firing on them. Several of the more responsive vehicles managed to avoid the walker's feet, but many were pounded into the ground, along with several seekers and shock troopers. Artillery shells from all 3 sides alighted on their targets and exploded. No specter was left stealthed.

Above, the remaining capitol ships fired and hastily moved out of range of any near by AA, Behemoth artillery shells annihilated the remaining particle shredders, and most of the obelisks. The flame rose, blue purifying flame coursed through the Steal Talons army, infantry burned in their uniforms, many dead before they hit the ground. Disintegrators shredded many of the mammoth tanks, and commander Randle Radcliff stood their and wondered how it could have all gone so wrong, he ordered a retreat, but as he was leaving he glimpsed a pulsating wavering light among the ruins of the fallen capitol ship he had help bring down. Unfortunately he had no time to investigate, because he was busy organizing a retreat, but he still wondered.....

* * *

Stark sat, dejected in his seat, the refueling process was almost finished. He feared for his life, & the life of the 3 remaining troops that had survived with him through the nerve-racking experiences. He knew they were tough, but after this experience they would be veterans. He kept telling himself that they would survive, and some day, someday soon see their fellow GDI troops, he had hope, and that was just about all he had. Just then a loud blaring alarm, startled everyone. Stark and his men jumped up, and were going to see what was going on, but guns were leveled at them, and they sat back down. Conrad ran up to one of the guards and whispered something in his ear, he immediately signaled the other guards to stand down, and they all ran off. "What's going on?" asked Stark. Conrad's face was very grim and worried; they all ran to nearby transport. Panting all the way, "Did you contact GDI command?" "What? No how could I? I was searched, scanned, and I don't even know where we are." "I don't know how they found our location, but sensors indicate an Ion Cannon is closing in on our position!" "I only have one thing to say, and that's 'O Snap."


	6. Chapter 6

_Explanatory notes: I wrote this before 1/20/09 So this was all speculation. hope it dosn't violate Tos, but not too major anyways. I'm talking about an event 4 years in the future. I've been told Boyle's story is fitting, please comment and tell me if u agree. I'll try and put out 7 later this week, sorry for the long delay. But remember 7 is the last I've alredy writen, so 8 may be long time in coming, since I haven't writen it yet. Emjoy and review. _

* * *

**Installment VI**

Director Boyle stood next to one of the numerous triple barreled rail guns at the prow of the USS Obama, and sighed. He ran is fingers along the perfectly smooth base, and over the GDI logo embossed above the manual controls. Directly under the logo stood the 3 credos of GDI, "Save, Protect and Serve the world" in gold block letters, underneath that in a smaller but readable type said "The UN is Obsolete" (The UN were charged to keep peace, but not make peace. The Global Defense Initiative can do both and much more.) And beneath that in a black scroll were 6 letters that formed a word, which was brought about in abundance during Obama's administration. Those 6 letters were also one of the 7 codes to a top secret GDI facility were Dr. Peter Bishop studies cases in "Fringe Science" as well as "The Pattern".

Boyle recalled the time this carrier was built, and named, he was just a young man at the time, and it was built in memory of the 1st black president, who changed the world. It was an uncertain time, a time of war and Oil. Obama was the one who extended open arms across the waters. He accomplished Foreign policy goals that were unexpected of his lack of experience. The other 3 super powers, (Britain, Russia, and China) anticipated the US election would be heated, and they were right. "Change" was the banner, and hope was the fuel. It propelled the Democrats back into power, and gave the world hope once more.

But in the simmering turmoil in the Middle East, all was not well. The Iron Fist of Obama had driven most of the terrorist factions together in a united front to withstand the American & European forces. Over time the Terrorist leaders formed the entity "The Brotherhood of Nod", it had existed prior to this, but the swelling in numbers and the birth of new technologies helped solidify their sacred union. Blood rights, blood sacrifices, and blood donations were done so frequently the color Red became a symbol of their power. Thus it was decreed that every building would have red florescent lights installed every few meters, to give their temples a unnerving red cast.

Upset with the nation and world reforms Obama made in his 1st term, an assassination attempt took place on the day after he was reelected. During is speech, an assassin armed with a Moonraker laser, and managed to line up his shot so it would bounced off several mirrors held by accomplices in the crowd. Fortunately the attempt was foiled at the last minute, when a young man craning his neck, to get a better view of the podium jostled one of the mirror holders. That man was Redman Boyle. The ice blue laser beam over shot it's target, and hit Michel Obama, cutting a clean pin prick of a hole through her chest and into her spine. As she fell the stadium exploded in an uproar, the Secret Service bustled in and hustled the 1st family away in a wall of bodyguards. All the exits were locked, and grim guards pushed the panicked crowd back. Boyle could clearly remember the sight of a young man in the sky blue & gold uniform of a GDI cadet chasing a darkly clad man, with a guitar case. After that he only recalled shouting, and panicked cries of unsettled & confused civilians.

Hours later the perimeter finally let up, and reports were given, the six mirror men as well as the seventh man, who was the gunman were rounded up, and taken away. The cadet in the uniform caught them all, he stood at attention, giving his report to the ranking officer, the name stenciled on the cadet's uniform said Stark. To Boyle's surprise Stark turned and gestured at him. Boyle walked closer to see what was going on, "according to one of the mirror men, that man ruined his trajectory." The officer nodded at Boyle, and said, "Sir you single handedly saved the presidents life, how does that feel?"

During the 1st lady's recovery the interrogation team traced the assassins back to the Brotherhood of Nod. Obama approved numerous measures that made the Global Defense Initiative into the vast power it was destined to become. Boyle was put in the department branch, which managed the funds, and bills approved by the president, thus this is how Boyle got to work for the GDI treasury department.

Boyle remembered those good times, the era where he worked for an over powered organization, an organization that sent Nod forces fleeing like rabbits at the sight of a bear, hiding from their armor and air superiority. He relished the power he wielded, and hungered for more. As the years went by his diligence was noticed, and he rose in rank.

Even though his department was vital to GDI, and he had help make it a paragon of efficiency, the top executives never considered him to join their ranks. This obvious slight made him bitter over the years. He would consciously choose to arrive slightly tardy to the annual "Energy Summit" meetings just to spite those bull headed executives. He also hated sitting through the hours of scientific charts and graphs, presented by the top GDI energy specialists, most of them were top researchers, speculating on the different uses of Tiberium. The others were advocates for solar, wind, and numerous other existing, and potential energy sources. One claimed he had successfully ran a light bulb on harnessing brain waves, another had claimed it was possible to heat things by harnessing the power of cow flatulence. These hair brained explanations either made the executives keenly interested or subside into boredom, it was always interesting to see which executives were interested or bored. He would places bets with several fellow department heads on which executives would be bored & interested by each presentation.

As the years crawled by Nod grew, this worried many of the other GDI officials, but Boyle was not one of them. He didn't know why himself, but he thought it might have something to do with the fact that it didn't directly affect him. He told him self, as long as there were people to order, coins to count, and women to sleep with he be fine, but he was wrong, he didn't know how wrong, till one day. Several days before the annual "Energy Summit" a Nod force armed with new stealthed artillery had lay waste to the Treasury building. Destroying years of filled paperwork, records and killing or injuring nearly a thousand treasury workers. Workers could be replaced, paperwork could of the computers were also destroyed. According to the survivors several green missiles had flown in, and shattered the glass windows, and crumbling the marble walls, causing the wall mounted filing cabinets to burst open and throw their paper, and holograph disk records everywhere. Then there was a brief calm, where some ran to the stairs, and some hunkered down under their desks, hoping they'd be safe, several panic stricken fools tried to use the elevator, thinking it would be faster than the stairs. As the door closed with a few people in the elevator a low pitched hum was heard, and several artillery shells tore into the structure. The gas heater exploded, causing a fire. Papers and people burned alike, as more and more artillery shells bombarded the treasury building, pounding it into the earth after a mater of minutes. Boyle happened to be collecting the annual energy expense reports and was not at the treasury when the "not so natural disaster" happened.

After that day Boyle had never thought Nod a serious threat, even though the expense reports rose annually by alarming rates. Naturally he was not able to attend the "Energy summit", because he had to help pick up the pieces and rebuild the treasury's management system. On the day of the Energy summit Boyle was setting up to link with them via a holographic screen viewer, this process was unperfected, thus not a 1st choice of communication, but it would have to do. His representative was aboard the Philadelphia, managing the holo receiver equipment. Then all of a sudden the aid dropped the visual receptors, and he could only hear audio, he heard alarms, and panicked sounds, then an explosion, and the feed cut out. He flipped on the news and heard the announcement that changed his life forever.

Boyle stood on the deck of the battle ship gazing at the frothing waters. They were nearing their destination, the beacon wasn't far off, he set his shoulders against the wind, but he couldn't help stop shivering, he almost regretted coming this far north. But it had to be done, and he was always a man who got things done. He hoped it wasn't a trap, he was almost sure it wasn't, but still he was uneasy. Several hundred miles above him an Ion cannon was rising with the dawn, Skating on the atmosphere, as if it was leading the battleship, as if they had the same destination.

* * *

The blaring of alarms wined in the predawn air Stark and Conrad and 3 GDI soldiers raced to a near by reckoner, even though it looked overloaded they managed to squeeze in. the smell of BO inundated all of them, and made them all very uncomfortable. They powered the engine up, and joined the throng fleeing the base.

Nod vehicles were firing pot shots at each other in their frenzy to escape the overly crowded base. In their desperation some Tiberium infused soldiers actually rode in the harvester's Tiberium storage capsules. Some infantry who couldn't find a ride were crushed under the parade of fleeing vehicles. The Venoms and Vertigos had all already fled, and were regrouping at the closest redzone. They all headed for the closest redzone, redzone 24. All the structures were sold, except the power plants and the stealth towers, the old stealth generators were hastily dismantled, and shipped out. The vehicles moved like enraged buffalos, some slow attack bikes were thrown out of the way by the larger and heavier avatars. In their panic a few attack buggies accidentally set off their EMP coils, further adding to the bottleneck. Several EMPed beam cannons got crushed by a frantic group of avatars, to hell with tier responsibilities, their lives were at stake. A few smaller vehicles tried calling for transports, but in the chaos the transports found it impossible to land. Thus dooming a few of the lagging units.

Stark sat scrunched next to Conrad, and asked him where they were going, Stark couldn't hear what was said, due to the sounds of chaos outside, even though they were nearly face-to-face. The tightly packed group of 10 men in the reckoner did all they could just to catch their breaths in the confined space. Conrad cursed the saboteurs who designed the vehicle with little ventilation, sure it was helpful in a battle, to prevent grenades or buzzers slipping in, but a man's got to have fresh air. Those fools had never considered more than 4 people in the vehicle, including the driver. Also the lack of ventilation made it so only the driver could see the outside, once deployed there was enough room, but they couldn't afford the time spent, it took a ridiculous amount of time to undeploy a reckoner, and in the heat of battle there was neither the time nor the tools to do so. This lack of planning showed just how shortsighted the vehicle designers were. If Conrad had the breath, he'd curse them, but each time he got it back, another bump in the road would knock it out of him. A minor consolation was the Australian driver, who commentated what he saw, he would say things like "Wo look at that one there, that look fierce, lets see if I can get around that mine field!" It reminded him of an old nature hunter, who got killed by a stingray. Conrad looked at his watch, and crossed himself, as he did the symbol of the ion cannon appeared directly over the base in his holographic watch display. Then the driver reported 8 lancing blue lasers, and they got the hell out of there. Conrad heard the explosion from nearly 3 miles away. As the Dawn rose in a yellowish orange glow, blue particles drifted up to join them.

* * *

Boyle, seeing the Ion cannon vaporization mist knew his objective was complete, but his mission wasn't over, he ordered the Battleship and his escort craft to keep moving north. The Mastermind scuttled across the frigid ice, and rubbed his front three articulators together in an attempt to warm them, a reward was due him, but ironically given his brainpower he could not decide what his reward should be, he contemplated all the options he could think of, and there were quite a few options. But more on that later, as he skated on the ice he recounted what he had done in his head. He actually mentally replayed the events as they took place, so it looked like he was watching a movie in his head. It even projected it in 3rd person, something no human could mentally do, again he was reminded of the primitive nature of these humans, and he scoffed at the thought of them. He continued his trek across the snowy wasteland, dodging piles of shredded metal and burned bodies, to reach his destination.

His replay went something like this: The Mastermind looked down at the battle, taking place bellow the fleet of Scrin war ships. It was obvious, allied with the Nod base defenders, the GDI battalion had no chance, but they still persisted. Railguns, artillery shells, and armor piercing bullets flew towards both Scrin and Nod units alike. The carnage continued for several more minutes, purifying flames melted ice caps, and snow dunes, literally raining rain on the troops, in some areas where there was mud mixed in the snow, it looked like chocolate rain. The slabs of cold melted ice ran in rivulets down the uniforms of the GDI troops, chilling them. The flames burned a few of them beyond recognition. Bullets, lasers, and plasma disks tore apart many units. The Blood lust further excited the Mastermind. He eagerly directed the fire of his warship. The Mastermind also had fun tampering with the minds of humans, thus he planted phantom enemies in the minds of a few soldiers, making them fire on their own. As the battle raged more and more GDI troops were killed, and they were force to pull back their lines. But in the chaos of fire he had seen several units target the capitol ship, he tried to reach into the minds of the group, but it was too late, He saw the Flag ship going down, the gravity stabilizing engines had slowed it's fall, but it was still falling. The shield was gone, so there was nothing to cushion the fall. He quickly engaged the traveler engines of his warship, and attempted to go get in telepathic range of the Flagship. Several escape pods burst from the flagship like a belch. Most of them zoomed around and alighted on the other nearby warships, a few simply fell to the battlefield like meteors. A few were crushed by the stampede of the retreating GDI forces. The Mastermind mentally scanned the escape pods, and the ship, sensing for the Foreman. He spotted him on the bridge of the falling ship, clenching his claws. The mastermind had to work fast. The flagship was already nearing the ground. The tripods underneath the flagship got smashed into the ground like accordions; their shields parted under the titanic force, and continue pounding them into the ground, like pancakes. The Mastermind was almost out of time. He quickly wrapped his mental web around Foreman 7432, and using all his brainpower jerked him from the bridge of the flagship to the warship. In his haste the Mastermind had also teleported the section of the railing Foreman 7432 was clinging to. The relocation also left a shimmering ring of ionized particles, which lingered in the air for a few seconds at both ends of the teleportation sequence, that residue is what Radcliff saw as he was organizing his retreat.

Foreman 7432 stood on the Masterminds warship with his seeing orbs filmed over; he had been ready to excrete his Toxic Tiberium gas as a last gesture of his defiance to dying. The toxic gas was a high concentration of tiberium, which would turn any infantry who came in contact with it into a viceroid; it could even chew through most tank armors. It would also stay on the battlefield creeping towards any near by concentration of Tiberium. Fortunately for the humans, none of the gas was released. Foreman 7432 opened his orbs and stared around him in astonishment, mixed with relief. The Mastermind flopped onto the deck in exhaustion, and lay on the bridge panting. He gasped out "Your Foremanship, your lucky to be alive, what now?" The foreman took in a deep breath of the tiberium haze in the ship and relaxed. "What is your designation?" "I am called Master 21, yor foremanship." He wheezed the words out in a pain filled croak. "I have a most devious task for you, if you complete it, I'll will report your actions to the Overlord, and you will be rewarded however you like" As Foreman 7432 described his plot, Master 21 saw the plot in it's entirety, he carefully controlled his emotions. He sensed more than the Foreman could suspect, he had planted a mental probe in the foreman, which could only be detected by direct contact with a Prodigy or The Overlord; this probe showed active thought, but could not manipulate, or search the thought patterns of the Foreman.

O how the Masterminds despised the upper class prodigy, they were a relatively the same as Masterminds, but they came from royal stock, thus affording them greater mental abilities. The animosity was so great that Masterminds and Prodigies have made vehement requests never to serve under the same foreman, thus there were never a intermix of these two mind magicians under any Scrin command, under normal circumstances. Even in certain emergencies they would stay well away from each other not even wanting to probe any near by minds. This open prejudice had led to several unfortunate events, which were not adequately describable in any human language, maybe German, but still. This hatred has simmered since both mind manipulators were conceived, and holds true for almost all Masterminds and Prodigies. This behavior was well known to the foremen, and they encouraged the rift.

Mastermind 21 looked back on what had happen, and he still considered his reward. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he almost ran smack into a Black hand squad that was patrolling the Nod base, he identified himself as Foreman 7432's representative, and the squad let him past, signaling the near by soldiers to stand down. Unimpeded, the Mastermind scuttled across the courtyard and entered the complex of the base. Before he entered the MCV he quickly and discretely noted the stations and guard patterns of the soldiers. Then he was bathed in the red glow of the lift doors as they opened, and he entered the lift, accompanied by a confessor and a blackhand squad member, which seemed to be part of the confessor squad.

* * *

Several hours had passed, and Stark stood annoyed at the end of a corridor, watching Conrad converse with several door guards, which looked more machine then men. The guards flashed their EMP charged arms in a threatening manner in the direction of Stark and his three men and jeered. Conrad flashed his clearance badge at the guards, and they settled down. A few more words were exchanged, and the guards grudgingly let the group of 5 men past them, into the room beyond. There was a wall display that flashed the number 24 in blood red, on the wall near the roof of the command center. commando Elza was already in the room, sitting in a plush leather chair, addressing a man opposite her behind a stiff oak desk, on top of which had all manners of maps, charts, graphs and documents displayed. As the 5 men were noticed, several of the maps quickly dissolved into the tabletop, what looked like an ordinary table was actually a display screen, which was displaying several files straight from the base main computer system. Before all the designated classified files disappeared, Starks keen eyes were able to read the title of one particular report, it was titled "Cabal's core transportation convoy has gone missing!"


	7. Chapter 7

_Explanatory notes: This is the last one that is already done, not sure when I'll have time to write 8. Hope you enjoy this, there are 2 links, if they don't work in this story formant simply coppy and paste into your browser. The 1st link is a must see for before the break, thus second is just for kicks. But hope you enjoy, now we know why a titled this "The Forgotten Heroes" or do we? Enjoy and please review. Thanks._

* * *

**Installment VII**

The three top Science Ministers sat in their hard backed hover chairs around a circular holographic display screen. This circular table was a touch screen interface to Nod's core database. Since they had the rank of Science Minister there were no restrictions on the information they could access. This special conference was convened to discuss a most grave and classified issue. This issue became increasingly pressing due to the recent disappearance of Cabal's core components. The case was called The Splicer project.

This project was started near the end of the 2nd Tiberium war. The knowledge gained from the Tasitus was instrumental in the projects development. Cabal's betrayal put that project, and most other projects on hold. Resources were diverted and unfortunately some of the critical data was locked away in Cabal's data matrix. After the war most of the files were found to be corrupted, and some data was never retrieved. The Splicer project reached a stonewall, and nothing could be done, thus the project had to be put on hold. After the war died down the Science Ministers were redirected in assisting the development of new units such as the Mantis, the Specter, and the Wraith. Thus they were never able to review the fruits of the Splicer project.

The projects purpose was to create a breed of super soldiers, enhanced with Tiberium, bestial behavior, and alien genetic codes found in the Tacitus. Unfortunately the mutations were unpredictable. According to the models found in the Tacitus, such synergetic metamorphose were theorized to work, but something always went wrong. They were never able to make the transformations pleasant, or it minimal not painful. Strong sedatives were needed to control the subjects. Occasionally the subject's metabolism interfered with the sedatives, causing disasters. Originally the subjects of the project were to be Nods T4 infantry, able to be trained after the Tiberium Research Lab at the Hand of Nod, but there were many complications. One such complication was the subjects were stripped of self-control once the metamorphosis was complete. Thus the bestial nature of the compound took over, and was very chaotic.

There were originally four top Science Ministers, but one of them was found out to be a GDI spy. Thus they dosed him with the Splicer compound, which turned the former Science Minister into a Splicer himself. What's worse was it happened publicly, thus alerted GDI to the progress they had made, and potential threat such technology posed. Nod security was heavily monitored by the OSA (Office of Special Affairs) Thus the spy wasn't able to leak much information. The events put the project on hold once more. GDI's Fringe division was the agency that was able to deconstruct the compound from the remains, and trace it back to Nod.

The three Science ministers sat in silence as they viewed the carnage of the dosed GDI scientist, their former brethren. A clip of what happened is shown bellow:

/tv/Fringe/season_1/episode_13/

It galled them that the GDI Scientist had risen to the highest ranks of the Nod Science Ministry, with out setting off any preemptive warnings. How could they have been infiltrated? Each of the three men pondered this, as they watched the transformation take place. It was quite disturbing. What was more intriguing is that Nod surveillance hadn't picked up any attempts nor wishes to inform GDI high command. It was puzzling at best, and suspicious at worst. Why wouldn't a GDI infiltrator not attempt communication? The Nod secrets he must have learned were enough to retire on. But the three Science ministers had more important things to think on, musing on why one of their own chose not to inform could be debated on later. The Missing of Cabal's core made this situation more complicated.

There was key data in Cabals Data matrix that detailed every failed attempt at the Splicer project. Along with key data as how to theoretically perfect the process, as well as a theorized ways to control Spliced subjects. If GDI somehow intercepted that data they could effectively stop Kane's "Next generation" warriors. Sure the cyborgs were effective, but they still required occasional maintenance. There have been many cases of mechanical errors, causing Cyborgs to freeze up, shut down, or misfire their weapons. The most modern and advanced cybernetics could never replace the functionality of a living organism. Machines need maintenance, and maintenance workers needed to be paid, and supplied with tools. Computers will always have issues, a spec of dust could short-circuit an entire machine, rendering it damaged or useless, lowering it's efficiency. It became a cycle that Kane had grown tired with. Thus he pushed the research and Development of organic machines. Hence, the Splicers. In the end a soldier is only as good as his weapon, if that weapon fails he is done for. Thus creatures with natural weapons make for a better soldier.

* * *

The Science Ministers decided on a course of action. And they documented it in the database, distributing the order out. Across the Atlantic, in Red zone 24 a message display screen flashed red. The message was addressed to the base commander. Luckily the base commander was already there, issuing an objective to all in the command center. Stark, Conrad, and the 3 other GDI soldiers stirred uneasily, they were ordered to storm a Scrin installment. Not just any installment, but a "Control node".

Stark and his men stood, in the timeless position of a commanding officer, even though it was not their own. There's a military code that all civilized warring factions must show each other, and that is the unmistaken chain of command. In the beginning of the Scrin invasion GDI & Nod did forge an alliance, but certain officials still refused cooperation, thus continued with the GDI vs. Nod situation. Interestingly enough neither side's high command took the alliance that seriously, thus they seemed to overlook the occasional engagements. Historians theorized both sides never expected the truce to last, thus they kept their guns polished.

The Message board flashed urgent, and immediately showed this in digital 3D

.com/watch?v=ucjwL8Or6As

The Commander turned and quickly shut off the display screen. It was an on going joke that Kane seemed to find very amusing, thus he ordered that Emergency messages were preempted by that display. I annoyed the hell out of some commanders, and others found it soothing. The Commander of redzone 24 was not one of the latter. He detested that song. The song was a prank that the GDI liked to flood their unsecured communications with. After a while Kane found it catchy, and ordered it to be set as the Emergency message. The Science Minister logo appeared, and the message began. "All Commanders sees secondary operations, and be on the look out for Cabals core, we have reason to suspect it has been remotely activated. Make finding the unit a primary objective. Peace through Power"

The Commander turned and scowled at Stark and his men. A smile crept across Elza's face, a smile with no mirth, but filled with cold and calculating logic. It was unsettling to see. Conrad was the 1st to speak, and asked for his orders. Both the Redzone commander and the commando exchanged a brief glance, then the Redzone commander spoke. "Confessor Conrad, you are to lead your battalion and Stark and his men on the assignment described. You will hunt down Cabal's core thief's, and bring them back here. If u find the core signal a transport, and if you should encounter any Scrin you should kill them, report every 48 hours, is that clear?" Conrad confirmed his orders, and he and Stark marched off, along with Stark's men, past the fierce looking cyborg door guards. Both gave Stark a malicious gaze, then trained their red laser eyes on the zone commander, he Nodded, and they relaxed.

The commando asked "Sir, is it wise to expose our men to such GDI vermin?" To which the zone commander replied, "I have full confidence in my men, as should you. Stark will find his Death soon enough, we may all if Cabal is not retrieved." "You fear Kane Sir??" "Yes, but I'm sure the visitors will take care of us if Kane doesn't, Cabal may be inherently evil, but Kane still needs him, Nod still needs him, This new AI, Legion can't be much better, if the Terminator archives have taught us anything, it's that AIs can never be fully trusted. There in lies Kane's weakness, he relies on computers to much. Hell all the Dam Science ministers must have a masters in computer engineering. The Hand Becomes the fist" "Ahh yes sir, the hand becomes the fist."

* * *

The Battalion + Starks troop road in several Reckoners, plowing the countryside near where Cabal's transport was reported last seen. The accompanying vehicles lumbered behind due to their slow speed. They parked their vehicles, and they all got out to survey the land, and look for clues. In all they totaled 5 Black Hand, 10 rocket troops, 10 concabs, 5 mantises, 10 scorpions, and 3 purifiers, not counting the reckoners needed to shuttle the infantry. All in all a modest force, unfortunately at the end of the day about a 1/2 of them would be killed.

Stark and Conrad's men combed the street detritus, looking for any clues. Many of them set off in pairs to search the near by civilian structures. The structures were always clear of civilians. They had been removed from potential battle zones, and were over crowding the Blue zones. Those who weren't safeguarded by GDI were forced to join the Nod military. If your old enough to fire a gun your good enough. Nod training for the lower ranked soldiers were minimal, thus there was the occasional miss fire. A misfire seemed to happen in one of the civilian structures, the shots were clearly heard over the street. It abruptly stopped, not uncommon for a soldier to realize his mistake, and correct himself. But then it happened again in another structure, each cutting off abruptly. Then it happened again, and again, all in quick succession. Soon all the structures with scouts went silent. This all happened in the space of a few minutes. The men didn't respond to radio hails, and both commanders grew suspicious. It started as a small nagging fear, then as the minutes of silence past it grew to the bitter fruit of suspicion. The remaining soldiers combing the streets stopped to stare at their commander with puzzled and fear laden eyes. Then there was an immense roar, and from the previous silent buildings came a torrent of projectiles, peppering the streets, and pinning the Nod soldiers down, forcing them to seek cover. It wasn't plasma nor blue lasers, but it was common rockets and bullets.

The men that could move ran for cover behind vehicles. The Black hand troops instinctively headed towards the nearest building and began to burn the structures, causing high pressure smoke to suffocate those inside. Usually one blast of their flame throwers would clear a building, but for some unknown reason the ordinary dose wasn't enough. The enemies kept firing out of the window plowing down the careless soldiers. There were even a few rail guns fired off, destroying a few of the lighter armored vehicles. The adapted scorpion tanks could do nothing, and some of them exploded. They were adapted with charged particle beams. Conrad hated not using every option, thus he outfitted his BH scorpion tanks with the beams, directly violating regulations. To hell with regulations, if a regulation prevents you from saving a life it's not worth following.

The battle raged on, with seemingly little headway. They either had to destroy the structures or send troops in to find and kill the combatants, and destroying the structure was preferable, but not always possible. The hail of weapons fire kept most of the Nod battalion pinned down.

* * *

More than 100 miles away in a dank underground facility, two men sat in rusty metal folding chairs, and stared at the main screen showing the battle. A 3rd figure stood in the doorway in a green-coiled robe, observing the view screens on the other side of the wall. Her attention flicked back and forth between the main screen, and the mini screens, which observed a hand full of diagnostics and logistics data. Both men were tense, but one was tenser, he just about jumped out of his seat when he recognized a figure in a GDI commander's uniform. The metal chair skittered about a meter away, from the sudden backward push it got. It came 3 inches from a box of grenades. The man quickly recovered his chair, murmuring a hasty apology to the female in the doorway. He sputtered out "That's GDI commander Stark, he's one of us!" The other man asked if they should sees fire, the women "no, not even if we wanted to, our troops have gone radio silent, and their ordered to fight to the death, and they shall, even if they hadn't been ordered to do so."

The three watched as one of their rail gun armed commando ran out under covering fire, and C4ed a purifier. Such an action was suicide, but the commando new his duty, and as he ran out from under the fallen husk he was shot several times in the chest, blood spouting from his wounds and he collapsed in the middle of the street, which was a no man's land. The women looked away, and shaded her eyes for a moment. Then she recovered. Light glinted off the green Tberium scar marks on her face, and mixed with a few tiers she shed, causing her face to gain a glowing quality. Depending on the artist they would call it either beautiful or hideous, there was no in-between. Some liked to call it Red or Green, no half measures. The entire engagement lasted about half an hour. All three sat in sullen silence, occasionally a few people would wander in, just to see how the battle was going. None of them so much as glanced at the other display screens. Finally the battle was over, and it was just the three of them again. One of the men asked what they should do now, and the women replied, "We wait", as she turned her attention once more to the mini screens. On one of the screens, the one nearest the top of the shelf began to scroll words across its face. It was directed to the main screen, the sceen that a minute earlier had show the death of so many, how apt, she thought. The screen said only 2 words. Those two words made all three of them shudder. But it was necessary for their survival, they have been hidden in the shadows, hunted, persecuted, and swept under the proverbial rug, for too long. They have devised a means to return to the spotlight, and they are ready. Those 2 words brought fear, dread, but also brought hope, and excitement. Those words were "Cabal Online".

* * *

_Classified Report:_

The Emotional Acceptance and Latency Affairs division of GDI, known as EALA was largely responsible for the absence of Mutants and Tiberium creatures within the standard briefing packets. They have intentionally altered documentation, to mitigate the seriousness of Tiberium infestation. This government division is in charge of doing damage control, and is closely tied to the Media, They decide what the news will be. That means they usually just regulate news, but they decide what is most important, so they can focus the news media on it.

They do this primarily for "The Greater Good". Members of GDI thought the public couldn't handle the apocalyptic truths of certain aspects of Tiberium, so they did a major round up, and clean up operation of all mutants & Tiberium creatures, either sending them to outskirt territories, putting them in labs, driving them underground, or putting them on "Reservations". The public was unsettled by mutants, and terrified of Tiberium creatures, with that fear loose in the population GDI couldn't govern efficiently. Thus they created EALA to cover it all up, and mitigate the circumstances, to calm the populous. "Control the Media, control the mind" But GDI never ran any propaganda; they were just trying to save people from them selves. Prejudice, fear and racism can become cancers. The problem is that it's human nature to fear and dislike those who are different, and scary looking.

In the end The Emotional Acceptance and Latency Affairs division did such a good job, that few knew that mutants & Tiberium creatures still existed. Covering up these unsettling events was the division's job, as well as to slant facts to make GDI always appear virtuous. Most of the time GDI was virtuous, but there were some incidents they were not proud of, and the circumstances allowed such slants. Under these directives they demonized nod in a soldier's personal experience, denoted as Renegade. Given the optimal public opinion, GDI would seem to be just a little more efficient than they actually were. To make this clear, nothing was completely fabricated, things were just occasionally slanted or over/ under exaggerated. It's very likely that given the opportunity, this division would have tried covering up the Scrin invasion, if at all possible. There were truths that the public & to some extent the military just didn't want to think about. EALA insured these truths were neatly taken care of, and yet they still hope one day people will be able to handle the hard truths of life, until then "Control the media, control the mind."


End file.
